May 5, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



687 



The eighth annual meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Society of Tropical Medicine will be held 

 in Tulane University, New Orleans, on May 

 18 and 19, under the presidency of Dr. Wil- 

 liam S. Thayer, of the Johns Hopkins Uni- 

 versity. 



Word has been received from Professor 

 Arthur H. Quinn, secretary of the Associa- 

 tion of Colleges and Preparatory Schools of 

 the Middle States and Maryland, that the as- 

 sociation accepts the invitation of Columbia 

 University to hold the next meeting there. 

 The meeting will take place on December 1 

 and 2, 1911. 



On the invitation of the departments of 

 science of Princeton University, the teachers 

 of science in New Jersey schools will hold 

 their annual meeting in Princeton on May 27. 



In a letter to Secretary Walcott, of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, dated Bahia Blanca, 

 Argentina, March 17, 1911, Mr. Bailey Willis 

 gives the following account of the initiation 

 of the work which he is conducting for the 

 Argentine government: 



You may care to know what progress we are 

 making in the forty-first parallel survey, south 

 latitude. We landed in Buenos Aires twenty days 

 ago. The topographers have now been at work a 

 week on base line and station signals in northern 

 Patagonia. Washburne and . Jones, geologists, 

 went out to initiate themselves in the geology of 

 a section that has been studied along the railroad 

 that runs west from this city half way to the 

 Andes. Pemberton and I remained in Buenos 

 Aires till yesterday, when we got our outfit aboard 

 the steamer that takes it to Puerto San Antonio in 

 northern Patagonia. Now we are off with 120 

 mules and horses on a 200-mile ride across Pampa 

 and plateau to San Antonio. The region is almost 

 waterless south of the Eio Negro. We find that 

 there is a basement of gneiss and granite, which 

 comes to the surface here and there. There are 

 porous continental sandstones of Tertiary and 

 Cretaceous ages, and also large areas of basalt. 

 Their distribution is unknown, but in the course 

 of four or five months we shall know it, and the 

 answer to the water problem will be worked out. 



In his recent address at Madison, ex-Presi- 

 dent Theodore Roosevelt spoke as follows in 

 regard to the University of Wisconsin : " It 



is not too much to say that the University of 

 Wisconsin occupies a position entirely unique 

 not merely in this country but in the world, 

 as an institution which beyond all others has 

 come the nearest to recognizing the ideals of 

 using the instrumentalities of higher educa- 

 tion for rendering the greatest possible serv- 

 ice to the country. The nation, as a whole, 

 points to this state as the state in which the 

 leading public men are not backed by the ordi- 

 nary corporations that too many of our public 

 men have been backed by in the past, but by 

 the greatest educational institution in the 

 state, and I have found everywhere on the 

 Pacific slope and in the Rocky Mountains that 

 the ambition of every state was to follow Wis- 

 consin as the wisest and most far seeing pro- 

 gressive state, and to secure the same co- 

 operation in their state between their 

 government and their university in rendering 

 service to the state, which obtains to-day in 

 Wisconsin." 



At a meeting of executive officers of boards 

 of health of New Jersey, held at Newark, 

 N. J., on April 17, 1911, a permanent organi- 

 zation to be known as " The Health Officers' 

 Association of New Jersey " was formed. A 

 number of the more prominent health of&cers 

 of the state were present. The objects of the 

 organization are, the advancement of knowl- 

 edge relating to public health and sanitation 

 and the encouragement of social intercourse 

 among health officials. The following ofiicers 

 were elected: 



Fresident—C. H. Wells, Health Officer, Mont- 

 clair. 



Vice-president — John O'Brien, Jr., Health OfS- 

 cer, Plainfield. 



Secretary and Treasurer — J. Scott MacNutt, 

 Health Officer, Orange. 



An executive committee of seven was elected, 

 and the officers, with the advice of this com- 

 mittee, were instructed to draw up a constitu- 

 tion and by-laws for presentation at the next 

 meeting to be held May 17. The membership 

 at present includes as eligible all health offi- 

 cials holding state board of health licenses, 

 and doubtless will be extended to other health 



